A note to my foraging self in 2010:
1. If you heed any of these rules, let it be this one. Do not compete with the squirrels. You Will Not Win. Forget copses, spinneys, woodlands and any hedgerow thick enough to support a squirrel population. Look out for billy no mates trees, standing forlornly alone, or surrounded by roads.
2. Look down. Concentrate on the ripe nuts which have already fallen, they're less effort to gather and also a generous pile of nuts on the floor is a good indicator that point 1 has been fulfilled.
3. Windy days are your friend. The best crop of 2009 was gathered after 2 days of gales.
4. If the outer green husk does not come away from the nut cleanly and easily, discard the nut, it will be rotten.
5. Forget those weirdy, disproportionately large, bulbous nuts. They are always empty.
6. There will be earwigs. Oh yes, there will be earwigs.
earwigs give me the shudders!!! and I'm still trying to find some nut trees in my area ...sniff...
ReplyDeleteHazlenut trees are really common, but in my experience the nuts are harder to find due to our bushy little friends.
ReplyDeleteI was sorting out the nuts yesterday, picked one up and noticed a little hole in it, as I was looking an earwig lunged out at me - ugh!